The Arizona sentinel., 1887-12-17
winging his way, speck across the

Dluo.
The shaft is down three feet, and
now the miner fills his pan with
gravel from the bottom of the pit and
washes it in the stream. Yes, there
is gold in the drift, for on the bottom
of the pan glisten three colors. They
are mere specks. it is true. but they
are the genuine article, and no mis-
take. This small find encourages the
toiler to continue his search, for he
knows that the heavier particles of
gold, no matter what may have been
their position in the drift when it was
first deposited, will not rest easy until
they have reached the rock-bed and
found a crevice for their grave. And
so he sinks the shaft to The bedrock,
twelve feet OF more. He drifts east
along the rock. he drifts west, north
and south, and finds the precious stuff
everywhere. but not in sufficient
quantities to pay.
Again he is up on that cliff. How
did he manage TO scale those perpen-
dicular walls which form its sides? 1t
seems rs though nothing but bird
could find foothold, and yet there he
is dancing wildly around something
that glitters in the sunlight like an
enormous ball of silver. That pile
is ore, rich in silver and lead. He
has just dug it out of the ground. Is
it any wonder. then, that he is in an
Of 6nli irrht
though he had struck it rich
at last. A little assistance from
capital is all he requires now to be-
come a millionaire. He sits down for
a moment and stares towards the East
with yearning look in his soft gray
eyes He is thinking, perhaps, Of. the
home of his childhood, and how he has
met with success at last. He leaps
into the pit again and digs away for
dear life. But the walls of the lode
have suddenly come together 1t was
merely pocket of ore, and will never
make him rich or any body else; and
fortune, who seemed so near to HIM
moment ago, is as far away as ever.
The ''pinching OUT of that lode
only disheartens our prospector for a
moment or so, for there he is now
driving a tunnel at the foot of that
granite boss. There is a fine lot of
ore lying at the mouth of the opening.
1t is sugary, comfy, drusy quartz.
and is sprinkled here and there with
gold. Carefully examine the granite
walls of the lode and see how clean
they are. The most skillful workman
could not have made them so smooth
or polished them half so we'll OBJ
serve those shining punches of crystals
there in the heading, sure sign that
the vein is live one. 1t is six feet
between walls, and the lead matter
averages forty dollars per ton. 1t is
surely rich ledge and the miners
fondest hope may yet be realized.
But who are those two men who have
just come over the crest of the hill
above the tunnel? One of them has
wooden box under his arm. 1t has no
cover, and there is paper containing
some writing fastened on the inner
side of its bottom. They are villain
ous-looking pair, these two, and are
there for no good purpose. See how
they crawl along, almost on their
stomachs. They. conduct themselves
as though some one might see them
and make target of their worthless
carcasses. But nobody molests them.
They have come to halt. set the box
down on its end and piled loose rocks
around it to keep it in place, and then
sneak off the way they came, like a
couple of cowardly coyotes, which
they closely resemble.
These two worthless belong to that
disreputable class known here in the
West as "claim jumpers" They have
been sent out by some covetous specu-
lator, who wants the earth, and who
sticks at nothing to get it, or at least
a large slice of it. He has learned in
some way of this promising pros
pect. and has engaged those
wretches to post a notice thereon
claiming the property There will be
a fierce dispute over it now. The mat
ter will be brought into the courts and
will probably be settled some time in
the next decade. 1t will be conflict
of the friendless and penniless against
the rich and Influential. Might, and
not right, generally wins in such cases,
not through any fault of those who
administer the law, but because of the
poverty of the rightful owner and the
law itself
Such is the real life of gold hunter,
except in few cases. After years of 4.
exhausting toll, and just when his eff
forts are about to be crowned with
success, others step in and steal the
fruits of his labors, or by trickery and
fraud reap the harvest which he has
sown. Those who so wrong him are
highly honored and respected in the
communities where they reside. while
he, who first planted the standard of
civilization in the Western wilds, and
won vast empire from the wilder
ness, steals into an unknown grave. -
Helena (Mon. Cor. ~ Y World.
john" said his wife, don't you
spend more than you want for lunches
down town? l can't understand how
it is that the money slips away as it
doesI' mo, m dear, 1 eat (hic) free
lunch nearly ev'ry day" We'll, I
wish you would give up free-lunches,
John. They cost you more than we